


Obligations, сircumstances

by bnbc



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hope, Pre-Het, Romance, Slice of Life, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28767990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bnbc/pseuds/bnbc
Summary: He still doesn’t get what's going on until she finally texted “Aren’t you a little lonely? What would you say to… some company? :)”[ Well, I just wanted to explain this dialog, you know, in a hopeful way https://prnt.sc/wn7y4z ]
Relationships: Goro Takemura & Female V, Goro Takemura & V, Goro Takemura/Female V, Goro Takemura/V
Comments: 4
Kudos: 96





	Obligations, сircumstances

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Обстоятельства, обязательства](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/743010) by Ilnejin. 



He doesn’t understand from the start what exactly is going on: too many people around, too many events happening at the same time. There are too many emotions as well, and his pain, grief, and anger don’t fade immediately and become familiar and inconspicuous, like the background noise of this crazy city. Night City has its own rhythm — twitchy, painfully fast one; it can accept and melt down anyone, or spit them out, after gnawing them to chrome and bone. This is not an option, so he has to adjust.

The first days pass in a haze: either because of the painkillers that he has to swallow in order to keep functioning somehow, or because of the total chaos and uncertainty.

The main question — whether the thief will survive? — remains unanswered for now, but there is nothing more Goro can do for her. He needs to take care of himself.

His accounts are blocked, the remaining money is just barely enough for a used van and a change of clothes. The dealers, of course, try to trick him: the inhabitants of the city’s shadow see him as a stranger in a strange land who is easy to deceive, but they only deceive themselves because every slum lives according to the same rules, no matter what name it has — Chiba-11 or Night City.

The thief survives and even agrees to work with him, but none of them are delighted with this. She’s... unreliable? No, that's the wrong word. She’s frivolous. Goro just can’t understand this: her life is in danger, but she keeps spending her time and energy trying to annoy him yet again. And she does it well, for sure.

Although she is useful, he gives her that. She knows the city better than her implants, knows the right people — and introduces him to them as well.

He returns to Wakako Okada the day after their first encounter. He needs money — to pay off his debt to the ripperdoc, and to eat and drink as well — and she looks smart enough to know what kind of work she could offer him and which one is better to avoid.

After they come to an agreement, Wakako pours tea into his cup, and casually says:

“She won’t know about it”.

He gets the message from V at exactly the same moment. She wants to talk. He goes to talk to her.

V drags him somewhere deep into Little China, confidently striding from roof to roof. Thin walls can’t keep the life boiling inside them, and it spills outside with voices, shouts, light, and music. But the longer they walk, the quieter it becomes around them, until the slums suddenly end, right above the riverbank, and V, who’s been talking about her last gig all the way there, falls silent mid-sentence and sits on the edge of the roof.

On the other side of the river stands the other Night City. Shining, bright, as if it was just printed. Glare from pink and green neon glide on the water, echoes of music and voices come from somewhere below, a heavy cargo AV slowly creeps through the sky right over their heads…

They spend more than an hour there before Goro reminds V that she wanted to talk about something, but she just blinks in surprise — as, for her, they've already talked.

He almost fails his first gig, but Wakako isn't someone to blame, it isn’t her mistake. He was mistaken when he thought it would be easy. However, later it becomes easier, and quite soon he returns to Victor's clinic to repay the debt. He gives more than he was formally owed — as his gratitude for the help and trust.

“You can't keep your implants disabled forever,” Victor says after a quick examination. “If you wait for too long, your body will forget how to work with them. So you also don't have much time.”

This “also” stays in the air like the invisible presence of the person they have been talking about.

Her presence is felt everywhere. Night City is huge, with thousands of buildings and millions of faces, but wherever he comes, he gets this feeling over and over again that she was right here just a minute ago. It feels especially strong here, in Heywood, where her name is written on every second wall.

He knows, of course, that this “V” stands for “Valentinos”, but for some reason, he likes to think otherwise. He checks the message, hoping that he understands her code correctly, and waits for her in the right location.

V liked all the cipher stuff a little too much.

She appears a minute before the appointed time. Quickly grabs him by the arm and drags him through an inconspicuous door — there is some kind of warehouse inside, and they walk past metal barrels and stacked boxes. Another door opens into light and sound, into a noisy bar, densely packed with people, but V drags him further, to the second floor, into the kitchen.

A woman turns towards the sound and her face flashes into a smile as she looks at V. Then she looks at him, and asks strictly:

“This one?”

V laughs and rushes to hug her. A second later, both switch to Spanish, and Goro temporarily turns off the lingual implant, not wanting to eavesdrop. Five minutes later, for the first time since his arrival to this city, he’s eating something really tasty. V is sitting across from him, picking the countertop with her fingernail, and looks very pleased with herself.

When V goes out to chat with Padre, a fixer with whom she has been doing business for a long time, a strict woman takes her place. She doesn't look pleased at all.

“I know, it’s not my business,” she says. “But if you ever offend my daughter, I'll rip your throat out myself.”

His throat is made of plastic and chrome, but at this moment he has no doubts she would do it.

“Your mother promised to kill me,” Goro says as they walk to the subway station. He says it casually as if this happens to him every day. V stops, frozen.

“Did Mama Welles call me her daughter?!”

They stare at each other for a couple of minutes, then V explains:

“She’s Jackie’s mother. She… I’ve been thinking that… Let’s say, she hasn’t called me that way for a long time. Thanks for telling me.”

And that’s it. Goro shakes his head and takes her to the station, then they go on different lines.

Roller coaster in the Pacifica District. Boxing match in Arroyo. Heywood again: a long street, fully painted with the faces of the dead Valentinos. The dam on the edge of the Badlands with a stunning view of the city…

The rooftop they're sitting on planning to raid the “Arasaka” warehouse also provides a great view. The rays of the sunset sun glide gently along the walls of buildings, making them look warm, and the boy from the Chiba-11 slums tells the girl from the Heywood slums a fairy tale about bakeneko.

“I used to dodge cops by running on rooftops” answers the girl out of sudden. “I still have a scar on my knee, want me to show it?”

Well, he still doesn’t get it until she finally texted “Aren’t you a little lonely? What would you say to… some company? :)”

Direct enough. Goro feels like an idiot because he didn't notice it earlier — all of this, of course, is completely out of place, especially now. He types a reply: a very polite, as it seems to him, almost a formal one, and sends it without reading — something about his debt, obligations, circumstances... (the next day he will read it and realize that he sounded like a complete dork).

She replies almost immediately: "Well, let me know if circumstances change."

Goro stares at the phone for a long time. It was his mistake, that she became attached to him. He shouldn't have let that happen.

A couple of days later she sends a photo with the caption: “BAKANEKO!!!”. In the photo, V hugs a bald cat, which looks like the one they have met on the rooftop.

What would you do with the cat, he thinks. Why the cat, you’d better have someone to pick you.

Perhaps, at this very moment, he realizes that he will do everything to save her. The problem is that V doesn't want to be saved — she has her own, very stubborn outlook on life, and it's hard to argue with her.

Although he keeps trying.

They continue working together, texting, calling, sometimes meeting. A couple of days before the parade, he awaits her near some club, where she has her usual very important meeting.

V is not late. She is almost never late. He smiles when he hears:

“Goro! Look what I got...”

…he smiles, but then he reacts to the sound. “Mantis blades”, not the latest model, but certainly a decent one. V sniffles offendedly — he twisted her hand before realizing that he was not going to be attacked. Mechanically, but without cruelty: he knows that she is not hurt, just her feelings are. 

“I apologize,” Goro says, releasing her. “Old habit. Great purchase, thank you for choosing “Arasaka”.

While V laughs, throwing her head back, Goro notices a lipstick mark on her neck. Then she shares the information she gathered, and he is unable to stop looking at her. 

What would you do with the cat, he thinks, having no idea what cats have to do with it.

V asks him to give her a ride — not a long one, just from Glen to Vista, — but even in this short time, she manages to change the music in his car, shift the bottle of water to the back seat and move the passenger seat so that she can pull her leg under her — well, at least V took off her boot this time.

She doesn't buckle up, he doesn't lecture her on safety; they ride in silence.

“Why do you keep pushing this seat back?” V asks when Goro stops the car. V is pulling on her boot, but not yet lacing, and for some reason, Goro thinks that this is another sign. “Noone but me rides with you”.

“Noone,” he nods. “You are quite right. Maybe, I should stop doing it”

V snorts, then pulls the laces together and tucks them somewhere under the tongue of her boot — it looks like she's not far from the place she needs to be. V goes back into her life, which Goro knows nothing about, and leaves behind herself a palpable emptiness.

He turns the phone over in his hands for a long time, then puts it aside. The circumstances haven’t changed yet, but maybe it will happen soon.

Maybe the day after tomorrow.


End file.
